Offense:
9

Defense:
21

Utility:
0

Introduction (Welcome To My Cho'Gath Guide!)

Cho’Gath is an AP Support Tank, with an incredible nuke easily capable of taking 1/3 of an opponent’s HP, he also has 3 other AOE abilities, 2 of which have CC (Crowd Control) effects, a knock up and a silence. With Cho’Gath you are able to absorb the majority of the damage for you team in fights, sustain in lane or jungle, protect your carries with you CC abilities and even use them to disorientate the opposition.

Pro's as Cho'Gath:

- Long range AoE knock-up
- AoE cone silence which helps following through with Rupture twice as easy
- Low cooldown single target nuke (WHICH DEALS XXX TRUE DAMAGE, and also has an AP ratio of 0.7!!)
- One of the best self sustaining passives in the game, which helps him wear his oppoenets down in lane.
- Full stacks on ultimate provide Cho'Gath with 900 bonus HP at max rank, also which many people don't know, stacks on Cho'Gath also provide him increased attack damage and range, scaling according to amount and level!

Con's as Cho'Gath

- Melee
- Skillshot reliant
- Mana hungry early levels
- Can very easy push a lane through Vorpal Spikes, which is dangerous as Cho'Gath has no 'real' escapes from ganks. (Vorpal Spikes does have a toggle option, which has like a 0.5 second CD)

Brief background about the author;
I’ll keep this short because I’m sure no one cares about this section ^^. My names Kieran and I’m on the EUW Server, I’ve been playing League for around 16 months now, just before Volibear was released. I’m mainly a top lane player, and I’m currently in the Gold league, division 3.

I've played over 50 games as Cho'Gath S3 and have maintained a win ratio above 70% for quite some time now. (Eventually I'll screenshot my profile statistics page of Cho'Gath here ^_^)

Ablities

(Q) Rupture: Ruptures the ground at a target location. After a short delay (0.5 seconds), enemies are launched into the air for 1 second, dealing magic damage and slowing them by 60% for 3 seconds.
(W) Feral Scream: Cho'Gath screams in a cone in front of him, silencing enemies for a short period and dealing magic damage.
(E) Vorpal Spikes: Cho'gath's physical attacks launch spines which deal magic damage in a line in front of him.
(R) Feast: Devours an enemy unit, dealing true damage. If the target is killed, Cho'Gath grows, gaining extra health and attack range (max 6 stacks). Cho'Gath loses half his stacks (rounded up) upon death.

MAXING ORDER: R/W/E/Q

Factors When Building Cho'Gath

Okay so with building Cho’Gath top lane there’s loads of different approaches you can take, typically you’d want to take a few things into consideration whilst doing so,

]1. What type of damage is the person you’re laning against going to deal to you? (i.e. Riven is an AD Caster/Bruiser who only deals physical damage. Rumble is a close range AP Caster who only deals Magical, and then there’s hybrids like Jax who does both typically 70%/30% physical/magical).
2. Who is the enemy jungler? Basically if its Lee Sin/Jarvan you kind of wanna prepare for early ganks by buying wards in your starting items, where as when it’s someone like Amumu/Nautilus you don’t really expect them to gank too early, but I’d still by wards in your starting items!!!
3. What items/auras/actives are gonig to help you and your team in fights? (i.e. if the opposing team consists of Irelia top, Orianna mid, Xin Zhao jungle, Vayne/Nunu bot a Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen couldn’t be needed more! Also things like Runic/Aegis are always great shouts no matter what the scenario, other items to consider are Shyrelia’s, Abssyal Scepter and maybe ever Rylais.

Early Laning as Cho’Gath

Okay so my reasoning for starting with Rupture is simple, if level 1 fights erupt Rupture is by far the best ability for Cho’Gath to have up, it has a AOE 1 seconds knock up (knock ups are not affected by tenacity) and slows all of the hit targets by 60% for 3 seconds, also it has a lower cool down then Feral Scream.

The reason I pick up Vorpal Spikes 2nd is because it helps to last hit significantly and is really good to have up for trades with bruisers like Riven and Jayce, I would opt for getting Feral Scream 2nd if you think that you may be getting ganked early before you have the chance to pick it up at level 3. The reason I get another point in Vorpal Spikes at level 4 instead of another point in Feral Scream is because it helps with those trades you most likely will be having top lane, getting Feral Scream over Vorpal Spikes at level 4 isn’t a bad choice though to be honest, it’s just all situational. If you’re laning against an AD Caster like Riven, Panth or Kha’Zix then I’d definitely recommend getting a few points in Vorpal Spikes before maxing Feral Scream.

Teamfights

At this stage of the game as Cho’Gath you want to be right at the front of your team, taking minimal damage from poke harass and waiting for the opportunity to Rupture as many of the enemy carries as possible, after hitting someone in your Rupture you want to charge them and Feral Scream them (IDEALLY GETTING THE AP CARRY OVER EVERYONE ELSE) and then NOMNOMNOM and ignite on the highest value target on the enemy team and continue to AA them with Vorpal Spikes, after this just continue to Feral Scream the AP Carry and Casters and Rupture the enemies that are focusing your carries!

Oh and try not to die, you’ll lose stacks and you’re no good to your team dead!

Counters

Basically anyone that does maximum health percentage damage hurts you, from Kog’maw and Vayne’s [W] to Warwick’s [Q] it hurts, especially when you’re near Endgame walking around with 5K HP!!
Typical counters for Cho’Gath in lane are;

Kayle; she’s an absolute ba*tard, just scream at your team to ban her, she’s get a slow that hits hard and allows her to kite you with ease for the duration, and she can haste herself to avoid your Q as she can cast the ability whilst moving. JUST BAN HER AT CHAMPION SELECT!

Riven; nowhere near as bad as Kayle, She has 2 gap closer abilities, a stun, a shield and no mana plus low CDs. She is pretty tough for someone like Cho’Gath to compete against especially because she’ll be forcing you to trade when going for last hits, just play passive, don’t worry about losing CS just try to freeze the lane and get your jungler’s assistance.

Garen; OP silence and can use his Q to either evade your Rupture or cancel the slow afterwards, best bet is to just Feral Scream him when he charge's you to combo and ask for help, he shouldn't be able to zone you after level 11 if you haven't gave any kills away, I'd probably rush Sunfire depending on the situation.

Warwick; Percent health damage hurts ): get Mercs, Sunfire, Aegis and farm! Lucky i haven't seen a Warwick top since the Pre-Season 3 begun!